Snoop’s VC Casa Verde Targets Booming European Cannabis Industry

LISBON–US rap artist Snoop Dogg is the co-founder of Casa Verde, a vulture capital (VC) fund based in Los Angeles that focuses on the cannabis industry. He’s now turning his attention to Europe.

Casa Verde announced on Tuesday it was investing $15 million (€13 million) into Portugal’s medical cannabis firm AceCann. It is the US company’s first investment in Europe.

AceCann chief executive Pedro Gomes told Sifted that Snoop Dogg and Casa Verde’s involvement marked a huge show of confidence in the startup.

“Having Casa Verde on board, with their track record in the US, and being their first investment in Europe, it’s definitely a stamp of quality for us,” he told the publication.

The Portuguese start-up, which was founded in 2019, said it would use the funding to develop a “state-of-the-art” production facility in Vendas Novas, an hour outside the capital Lisbon.

“We pivoted this to do this in an indoor facility so that’s already something different to most other European projects,” he said, predicting that by 2024 AceCann’s new production facility could provide for as much as €15-20 million in annual sales.

“As legalization sweeps across Europe, we foresee a rapid and exponential rise in demand for high-quality cannabis flower and extracts,” the company said on its website.

“With an experienced team, unique cultivation and extraction techniques and vast network, AceCann can become a premium provider to Europe’s booming medical cannabis industry”.